Empathy
Empathy is the capability to share your feel-
ings and understand another’s emotion and
feelings. It is often characterized as the abil-
ity to "put oneself into another’s shoes," or in
some way experience what the other person
is feeling. Empathy does not necessarily im-
ply compassion, sympathy, or empathic con-
cern because this capacity can be present in
context of compassionate or cruel behavior.
Etymology
The English word is derived from the Greek
word ἐμπάθεια (empatheia), "physical affec-
tion, passion, partiality" which comes from ἐν
(en), "in, at" + πάθος (pathos), "feeling"[1].
The term was adapted by Theodore Lipps to
create the German word Einfühlung ("feeling
into") from which the English term is then
more directly derived.[2]
Alexithymia from the Ancient Greek words
λέξις and θύμος modified by an alpha-privat-
ive — literally "without words for emotions"
— is a term to describe a state of deficiency
in understanding, processing, or describing
emotions in oneself.[3][4]
Theorists and their
definitions
Empathy is a loaded concept. There are al-
most as many definitions as there are schol-
ars who have studied the topic. They cover a
broad spectrum, ranging from feeling a con-
cern for other people that creates a desire to
help them, experiencing emotions that match
another person’s emotions, knowing what the
other person is thinking or feeling, to blur-
ring the line between self and other[5] Below
is a list of various definitions of what em-
pathy means:
• Daniel Batson: A motivation oriented
towards the other.[6]
• D. M. Berger: The capacity to know
emotionally what another is experiencing
from within the frame of reference of that
other person, the capacity to sample the
feelings of another or to put oneself in
another’s shoes.[7]
• Jean Decety: A sense of similarity in
feelings experienced by the self and the
other, without confusion between the two
individuals.[8][9]
• Nancy Eisenberg: An affective response
that stems from the apprehension or
comprehension of another’s emotional
state or